


The Snow Queen and the FireHeart

by LeGrande_Grover



Series: The Snow Queen and the FireHeart [1]
Category: Frozen (2013)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-05-13
Updated: 2015-05-13
Packaged: 2018-03-30 07:42:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 12,717
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3928594
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LeGrande_Grover/pseuds/LeGrande_Grover
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Just before the MidWinters Ball, Anna is kidnapped and it's up to Elsa and Kristoff to go after her. Their journey will take them beyond Arendelle's borders to the kingdom of Fria, where deep within the volcano rests the FireHeart, and the will of a cruel man.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. MidWinters Ball

**I**

MidWinters Ball

  


The kingdom of Arendelle stood firmly in the grip of an icy winter, with the endlessly sterile sheets of white stretched out over the land, broken only the dark, frigid waters of the fjord and the defiant euphoria of the warmhearted people. Just before MidWinter, the denizens of the kingdom were planning to celebrate the longest night of the year by filling the castle with light, laughter and cheer. It was the time of year when the sun barely rose in the sky and the night seemed to last forever, but despite the absence of sunlight, the town was alive with preparations for one of Arendelle's oldest traditions; the MidWinters Ball. In spite of its ancient heritage, it had been many years since the castle had been the center of the celebration, with that tragic past still spoken carefully against the chilly air, though now only as a memory to be forgotten as the people looked forward to their future under the lauded rule of their queen, Elsa. There would be a grand feast and lots of music, dancing and cheer. The formal ball was a masked affair, archaically to scare away the spirits that kept the night long and to bring the sun back to the kingdom. The traditions and superstitions of their kingdom dominated their preparations, some blatant and bold in the instruction of the younger generations that tagged along, with others unspoken, but revered.

In the heart of the town, Princess Anna had been running around as it transformed around her, overwhelmed with excitement at being able to once more join the celebrations that existed outside the castle walls. Her heart was light and a melody was at her lips as she twirled among the workers, trying to see every sight and absorb every joyful sensation of the day. For years, she had watched the town filled with songs and celebration, sometimes dancing alone in front of the windows to fight the loneliness born from locked doors and secrets. Those days had fallen behind her as castle doors were finally opened and she was eager to celebrate one of the most cherished traditions in the kingdom. Tagging along with her was Olaf, who had been in awe at the festivities, even with his beloved summer so far away.

"Look at all of the decorations! I can't believe they found flowers at this time of year. Ooo, grilled mackerel!" Anna cheered, walking around the bustling square where the residents were preparing, her hands moving nearly as quickly as her eyes while she poked and prodded every sign of the festivity she could find. Others sang around her as they worked, turning the entire town into a symphony of happiness, spurring her on in her own part in the homage to Arendelle's prosperity.

As she skipped along to the lively mood, she suddenly could hear the sound of a distant flute being played, injecting a lonely melody that stood out against the pulsing brightness of the town's song. The disparity between the two attitudes stalled her for a moment, making her look around for its source. While the melancholic tune rattled her embrace of the festivities, it had its own beauty and tale, something that made her want to find out where it was coming from, though she was unable to find anyone calling such a gray shade into the air.

Olaf appeared oblivious to the sedated song. "I know. Isn't it great? This will be the best party I've ever been to!" he remarked, still bathed in the atmosphere of MidWinter.

His reply made Anna lose the distant melody of the flute, and as she could no longer hear its decadent whine she shrugged and looked down to him with a smirk. "How many parties have you been to before?" she asked.

"None. Why?" Olaf replied.

Anna snickered at his remark and felt recharged by the atmosphere, jumping up to a lantern pole and looking out over the sea of people. "You're right. This _will_ be the best party ever. The last one had some hiccups and kind of a lot of snow, but this time I'm sure everyone will have a great time. Especially Elsa," she said, imagining that even though her sister had been busy lately, she was secretly just as excited about the celebrations as Anna. Hopping down from the pole, Anna smiled impishly as her boots spun smoothly across the frozen cobblestones, her toe kicking through a careless drift of white powder. "I mean, we've already got the snow," she added, feeling that her sister would not have much luck in accidentally making winter any colder than it already was.

Olaf was busy rummaging through a half-built stall containing various bottles filled with colored liquids. They clanked together loudly as he tossed them between his twiggy fingers. "Oh oh! Look, Anna! I have the greatest idea," he called, taking out a small sheet of paper and rolling it into a cone, "We can put a scoop of snow in a paper cone, drip some of this sweet juice on it and people can eat it to stay warm!" The snowman presented the treat to her, which was simple but colorful and had a sweet, seductive smell.

When she took a bite, it did not make her any warmer as expected, but it was tasty and brought a wide smile across her face. "It's delicious, Olaf. And it's just snow in a paper cone," she remarked.

"I call it Olaf's Super-Sweet Frozen Treat," he said proudly.

Anna smirked at the mouthful of a name and was about to suggest a catchier one when she happened to catch a glance of her sister, Queen Elsa, as she stood on the docks near the anchored ships in the fjord. As always, she was a stark contrast to the world around her, even in the winter. Where everyone wore thick fur coats and heavy boots, Elsa still wore an elegant blue dress that exposed her shoulders to the elements and her bright, platinum blonde hair seemed to glow even in the dim light of MidWinter. Since finding Elsa was an added bonus to her stroll, she started to walk over to speak to her when she caught wind of the disagreement that was happening between the tall officer next to her and one of the ship captains, a flamboyantly dressed man that appeared to have his attention more on the radiant queen than the matter at hand. At a distance, she could only see how angry the officer was, and while Elsa appeared calm she obviously shared in his mood. She could tell it was no time to approach them, so she lingered behind some crates and strained to listen, munching mindlessly on Olaf's treat.

"Your Highness, surely one ship makes no difference in your big, impressive harbor. My men have sailed a thousand moonless nights through waters far more treacherous than these. If you'd just grant my request to disembark, I'd no longer be a burden on your exquisite shoulders," the captain cooed in a heavy accent, treading a fine line between roguish charm and inappropriate insult, especially as his eyes were laid lustfully across her bare skin.

Elsa remained cool as she suffered him, but the officer next to her was barely holding his anger back at the way he regarded his queen as nothing more than a tavern girl. "Impudent cur. Your request has been denied seven times already. To have the Queen come down personally is more than a musty seadog like you deserves. Your ship may not depart until after…"

The captain suddenly shot him a glance, obviously not interested in the diversion while the infamous Snow Queen was standing right before him. "You interrupt me, sir, for I am speaking to your queen, not you. I bid you to bite your wagging tongue and allow this vision of elegance and beauty to speak on her own behalf," he spat, though his tone continued to build this mock reverence for her, while his eyes moved back to continue their irreverent worship.

The officer fumed, but Elsa's sudden step forward restrained his retaliation. "The harbor is closed until the end of MidWinter by tradition. You are welcome to join in the celebration with your crew and when the sun once more touches the Northern Tower, you may depart," she noted, not looking amused by his antics. Her immunity to his charm and her firm ruling did not improve his mood.

"Your Highness, surely there is some kind of compromise that we…" he began, but a sharp glance from her silenced him. As innocuous as she appeared, there was a great pressure behind her eyes and the air itself seemed to chill with her glance. Something deep inside was warning him not to go too far in his actions.

"After MidWinter," she repeated coldly.

With the matter closed, she turned and began to walk away from him with her officer in tow, leaving the captain breathing puffs of vapor and wondering just how true the rumors were about her powers. The notoriety of the Snow Queen had stretched far outside of Arendelle's borders, propelling varying tales of viciousness and cruelty like tidal waves to the lands beyond. If she had frozen an entire kingdom, he imagined he was better off not seeing how far he could get with her, though some muddy laughter from the deck of his ship clued him into the attention of his crew, signaling that from their perspective, he had just been dressed down by nothing more than a pretty girl. On a ship where fear kept men in line, retreat like that was a dangerous thing.

He also remembered that he had a very good reason to make preparations to leave very soon.

His back stiffening, he suddenly regained his smug gait threw his boot onto the mooring post that held his ship, nodding towards the frigid waters with his roguish smile back in full effect. "You may keep your celebrations of night and winter, m'lady. The Southern Seas beckon me, and I am set to go. You may never even know I was here," he said, intent upon defying her long after she returned to her castle.

By now, her officer was no longer content to simply speak to him and was going to deal with his insolence, but Elsa suddenly stopped, feeling her temper strained by the the man. It was aggravating when people took her courtesy for granted, finding her efforts to be fair as nothing more than an avenue to try and take advantage of her. She was the Queen and gifted with extraordinary powers that did not exist elsewhere.

Sometimes, she felt she had to remind people of that.

With an annoyed fire burning in her eyes, she slowly raised her hand out to her side, making all that watched her freeze anxiously at her posture. With a simple flick of her wrist, a wave of ice surged up from the fjord and devoured the side of his ship, jilting the unimaginably heavy vessel to the side, creaking over wood and moor and reaching all the way to the dock, where even the captain's boot was locked to the post he arrogantly championed. The spectacle drew the attention of the people around the harbor, a mixture of amazement and fear rippling through the air as the ship finally creaked to a halt, listing and seized. The arrogant captain shrieked, trying desperately to pry his boot loose from the magical ice before looking to her with terror in his eyes.

He had just been personally introduced to the will of the Snow Queen.

Slowly lowering her hand back to its practiced place at her waist, Elsa turned her head cordially to him, her eyes filled with a mixture of warning and satisfaction. "After MidWinter, Captain," she repeated and then simply departed from the harbor and back towards the castle, leaving even her officer looking after her with a sort of disturbed stare.

Upon getting away from the harbor and heaving a sigh of relief, Elsa tiredly rubbed her temple and tried to get the throbbing to go away as she was making her way back towards the castle, where she knew more bureaucracy and annoyances waited for her. More and more, she was feeling like people were going out of their way to irritate her, making these incidents of ice more common than before. The incident with the ship captain was just the latest in a flow that was starting to make the people whisper as she walked past them, though she could barely keep her mind from the man's ugly smile when he had spoken to her. She felt like she needed a warm bath.

"Ugh, what a pretentious man," she grumbled to herself just as Anna popped out from her hiding place, startling her.

"Wow, Elsa! What was that all about?" she asked, a ring of blue on her lips.

Elsa was surprised and happy to see her, but soon her dark mood came back as she looked back towards the frozen ship. She secretly enjoyed having its fate in her grasp. "It's nothing. A ship wanted to leave before MidWinter, so I was _explaining to_ him why they couldn't," she replied. Seeing the crew of the ship trying to chip away at her ice with their swords improved her mood slightly, though the reasons behind it made her quiver, and she soon turned her attention to Anna as a way of getting away from that dark feeling.

"What is that? And why are your lips blue?" she asked.

Anna looked to her and licked her blue tongue out to try and clean her lips. It did not help. "Uhm, Olaf's Super-Sweet Frozen Treat? It's really good! Want some?" she replied as she tilted the sweetened snow towards her.

"I named it!" Olaf chimed in with a hop.

Feeling a better mood come over her, Elsa smiled but raised her hands in defense to the offer. "It looks delicious, but no thanks. You enjoy," she declined. Anna shrugged and continued slurping at the treat, while Elsa sighed and looked around at her people preparing for the impending celebration. As the disturbance in the harbor faded, seeing the town bustling with activity replaced the pain in her head with a warmth in her heart that she never thought she could feel, especially when it was framed by the ice and snow of the winter, two things that had terrified her for so long. Her mood continued to thaw. "It's so nice to hear everyone singing and working to make MidWinter happen. So many times I listened to them from the castle, wanting to join them. It feels like a dream come true."

Anna was trying to wipe the blue color from her lips with the crumpled paper cone, but shared in her sister's sentiment. She grinned as she looked around. "I know. It'll be so much fun to have the Ball in the castle again," she agreed. "Oh! Have you found a mask for the Masquerade yet? I found a matching set for us."

Elsa found the idea very attractive, but shook her head with a sad smile. "The queen doesn't wear a mask. It's tradition. You'll have to wear one for the both of us," she explained.

"Oh, come on. You're the queen and everything. Just change the tradition. It'll be fun," Anna suggested.

Elsa frowned, moved by her interaction with the rude captain and echoing some of the recent words of her advisors. "No, we must hold to our traditions. The queen must be unmasked before her people," she explained, though she did not understand it at all. Anna frowned as well, wishing that lately she could see more of the carefree Elsa that was not being bound down by the burdens of the throne. She also had expectations as a princess that she sometimes did not agree with, but she felt she had no idea of what Elsa went through as she tried to rule Arendelle.

Quietly, she wanted to find a way to help her sister more.

"Hey Elsa! What do you think of my mask?" Olaf asked, breaking the gray mood. When they looked down to him, the snowman had a pale turnip, shriveled by months of winter storage, in place of his carrot. And it was in backwards. The shriveled vegetable gave the snowman an even more comical appearance and both of them shared a much-needed laugh.

The air itself seemed to warm, even against the winter wind, and Elsa continued to feel better in the presence of those she loved. "So, I haven't seen much of Kristoff these days. Are you guys having another little fight?" Elsa said playfully, embracing the mood as she grinned at her sister.

At the subject, Anna groaned and dramatically threw her arm against the nearest lantern pole, rolling her head against in the most exaggerated way she could manage. She was glad she had the chance to vent about something that was bothering her. "I don't know what that man is thinking. With MidWinter right around the corner, he decides to go get a load of ice from the high mountains," she said, then shot Elsa a glance, "And no, that doesn't mean we're _having a little fight_."

Elsa smirked.

"He went to go get ice. For us. In the middle of winter. Ice."

Anna was not lost on her point, though she did not want it spelled out to her in such a snarky tone. Her eyes narrowed. "Yeah, well, maybe he has some super-special ice that not even you can't make. Did you even think of that?" she replied petulantly.

"You're fighting."

"No, we're not. We just happen to not totally agree on a lot of things, like _not_ going to get ice in the middle of winter right before a super-romantic party."

"That's called fighting."

"Uhm no, it's not. Fighting over something like why he hasn't even breathed a word about getting married would be fighting, but since we're obviously _not_ fighting over why he hasn't even breathed a word about getting married, we're _obviously_ not fighting," Anna fumed.

Elsa sighed. Her feelings on Anna getting married had come a long way from her disastrous incident with Hans. She knew that she loved Kristoff, that he loved her just as much and that he was also a very good man, honorable and truehearted. She also knew that he was prone to social awkwardness and sometimes came off as a goof. That was also a reason she was satisfied with the thought of them being together, even if a part of her was also sad for it. It was a lonely thought to finally let go of her beloved sister and give her to someone else. "You can't rush this, Anna. Marriage isn't some casual engagement you make on a whim and you know that more than anyone. Kristoff will come to you in his own time, and at his own pace. You have to be patient," she counseled wisely, as sister and as Queen.

Anna was not known for her patience and folded her arms, thinking hard about her advice. "Right. Be patient. Be patient. I'm sure he'll come back just in time, dashingly entering the Ball on his…reindeer, wearing a handsome mask, and propose to me in front of everyone. Yeah! I bet that's his plan. Seems perfectly reasonable."

Elsa stared incredulously and her brows rose at the very image of it. "Kristoff..."

Olaf was equally confused by the idea. "Is she talking about the same Kristoff I know? Because that guy would soooo not do something like that," he remarked.

Anna knew the idea was unreal, but her heart was searching for something her head already understood, and she had a very stubborn heart. Truthfully, she had just been a little lonely without him around. "Well, then maybe I'll be the one who asks him to marry me. That'll work, won't it? Of course it will. I don't have a ring or anything, or maybe he still gives me a ring. Does that mean he has to wear the dress? No, we'll figure out the details afterwards. Let me think," she rattled on, putting her gloved hand to her forehead in thought.

While Anna was busy trying to figure out those details, Elsa's brow had furrowed as she listened to the idea. Against the carefree tone of her sister's voice, she suddenly felt agitated again, though she could not exactly understand why. "Wait a minute, Anna. Slow down. You can't be the one that proposes," she stated, half-laughing at the absurd idea.

Anna stopped mid-sentence and looked at her in confusion. "What? Why not?"

Elsa winced. "Why not? Because…because that's not how it's supposed to happen. Kristoff needs to propose to you, not the other way around. It's how the tradition goes," she explained, though the expression on her face showed she did not really understand the reasons either. It was just one of those unsaid things that everyone held to their hearts but no one could really explain. At the moment, Elsa felt like it was not her voice that was answering, but the endless voices of her choir of advisors.

Anna was now feeling a mixture of confusion and anger as she tried to grasp Elsa’s response. The idea was unorthodox, but she loved Kristoff and he loved her back, which was easily enough for her, though she was reminded of the last time she spoke of marriage to Elsa, even if the situation could not have been more different. Oddly, her reaction felt the same. "It's how the tradition goes? Why does that matter? I know Kristoff wants to marry me, and maybe he isn't the type that knows how to ride in a swoop a girl off her feet, but why does that mean I have to sit and wait? If it’s the right person, shouldn’t that be enough?"

"Anna, take a moment to think about what you're suggesting. Certain things have to be done certain ways. For you to ask him is…is…” Elsa stuttered with an unsure look on her face before looking back to her sister and straightening her back.

“It just isn't done that way."

Anna felt even more defensive and her face collapsed in anger. "I don't care about how it's done, and I thought we were past this. Who says a girl can't ask the man she loves to marry her?" she argued.

"I do," Elsa replied in a heavy voice as she placed her hands sternly across her waist, "You're a princess of Arendelle, and you're being unreasonable about this. Tradition must be..."

"Do you care about tradition more than me?" Anna snapped, her eyes stinging in the cold air, "I thought you'd always support me about this. I’m not some lovesick girl grabbing the first guy that comes along and you should know that better than anyone. How can you suddenly be so coldhearted?" The word struck Elsa powerfully. It made her think back of when they had been standing in her ice palace and Anna had been desperate to try and reach her, yet her fears had closed off her heart in order to protect everyone, including herself. Just the emotions associated with those memories made her clench her hand over her chest and stare back at Anna with uncertain emotions stirring within.

More than anything, she just wanted to stop this. "That's enough, Anna," she commanded, aware that their exchange was drawing a crowd but also aware that her voice lacked the potency it had before. She was starting to feel like her old self again. "This isn't the place for this," she warned, giving her sister a desperate glance.

Anna stared at Elsa painfully. She could see the panic in her eyes and understood instantly that this petty disagreement was not worth the pain it was causing them. The argument was shallow and should not have caused such a scene, but there were other things churning in her that made her more sensitive, and did not seem able to control the storm of emotions in her chest. Only in calm weather did slight winds gain weight and she struggled to push down her feelings in order to salvage their previous rapport, though she found she was having trouble doing it, as her burning heart cast a deafening roar in her ears.

Rational thought did not often stand up well against emotional discourse.

With nothing more than a lost whimper, Anna turned and fled towards the castle, leaving Elsa surprised as she looked after her, raising a hand out but not taking a step to give chase. She felt the entire argument was empty and should have ended with nothing more than a reluctant apology, yet it ended with them bitterly apart and unsure why it had happened in the first place. She did not care how they got married as long as they were happy, but she also felt she could never allow such an unorthodox proposal and she feared the stern response she would hear from her advisors. The stresses of ruling had been cutting her patience short and bringing out more of her darker impulses, especially when things did not go how she wanted them to, making her feel like she was not entirely in control of her destiny. More and more, she felt a current of wills, with hers being strangled by others and fostering the desire to press against them with her magic.

Like it had happened with the ship.

"Wow. Do you think she'll be okay?" Olaf asked, looking after Anna with concern.

Elsa shook off her emotions and dismissed the strangely cold wind that was thrashing the torches in the town around her. Regally, she knit her hands in front of her waist and put on a show for the spectators, who had been speechless in watching the royal sisters bicker before them. "She'll be fine. She just needs a little time to cool off and see reason," she replied, then headed towards the castle with a practiced pace and nobility. While she put on the front, her heart was aching and she worried about her sister's mood.

Secretly, she wondered if she should visit Anna later in a more sisterly capacity.

 

* * *

 

 

In her room, Anna had been crying. Her face was distorted by her cheek laying across her arm, her back curved and her feet toed into the floor. The desk beneath her arm was cold and hard, yet bore her weight as she wept, her heart heavy and her eyes red. She did not know why she was so upset or why Elsa's actions made her so angry. Deep down, her idea had been little more than a silly musing, but when her sister had reacted so coldly, she could not control how defensive she felt, as if she had been attacking the idea of her marriage to Kristoff. She knew the truth of the matter, but that did not lessen the pain. "Where are you?" she asked breathlessly, fingering a snow globe Kristoff had given her months ago. Inside a snowman was surrounded by a flurry of sparkles and white shards, with two small children playing at its base. Each time her finger disturbed the globe the flurry swirled around and reminded her of hard-to-grasp memories of her childhood. Despite her mood and regardless of who had given to her, she still saw herself and Elsa as the two little children in the flurry, happily pushing a ball of snow up to the incomplete snowman.

This was not how she wanted to spend the days leading up to MidWinter and she secretly considered seeking out her sister to reconcile.

Against the silence, a creaking floorboard alerted her to the presence of someone else and she straightened slightly, wondering if one of the guards had entered without her noticing. She did not really want to see anyone at the moment. "What is it?" she asked, keeping her face from the door.

"Princess Anna, I presume," said a voice, unfamiliar to her and in an accent she could not place. Her heart skipping, she wiped her cheeks with a clumsy hand before standing to face the speaker, wondering if some lost delegate from another kingdom had wandered into her room.

Instantly, she could tell this was not the case.

It was a man, dressed in heavy brown robes and wearing a strange metal mask on his face. A hood obscured most of his head and his appearance was almost more monster than man, with the mask in particular sending a shiver of anxiety through her. With MidWinter coming, there had been lots of them around so she did not feel immediately threatened, but something about him made her blood chill. His entire presence did not seem real.

"Can...can I help you?" she asked, her chest rising nervously and her brow twisted. The man said nothing, but reached into his robes and pulled out a long dagger with a black blade covered in strange red markings that glowed in the dim light of her room. It was like no blade she had ever seen and she was lost in its beauty for a moment, but she soon realized his intentions were not noble. He held the knife at his side and she gasped, backing into her chair slightly.

"I'm guessing you're not here for the ball. Guards? Oh guards..." she said in a frightened voice, her hand grasping at the snow globe behind her back.

There was no answer from the dark hallway beyond.

"You will come with me, Princess. Quietly, I would prefer," the figure said in a voice both polite and commanding. The demand made her gasp and he approached her swiftly and with intent.

Anna's face was frozen with fear, but she was not one to simply sit by as some stranger in her room threatened her. She would show him that she was not so easily taken. "Yeah well, sorry to disappoint you!" she cried, swinging the snow globe at him with all of her strength. Much to her surprise, his free hand darted from his robes and caught her at the wrist, swinging the bludgeon away and making her smash it down into the desk instead of his head. His skillful movements took her off guard and she tried to make as much noise as possible, hoping the noise would alert the guards or anyone else. As she struggled, she wondered how he had gotten into the castle, as it was no small feat to enter the princess's chambers without a single noise, though her impressions had to be suppressed as she concentrated on doing everything she could to defend herself from him and wait for someone to come.

In the terror of the moment, no one came.

Suddenly, the man darted in close and slipped up behind her, his hand coming up forcefully at her throat. The sensation of his powerful grip muffling her cries was nothing compared to the strange feeling she felt as her breathing was cut off, even as she struggled to break away. Faster than she expected, her head suddenly became light and her eyes began to drown in a hazy fog that obscured her room, though she was just as overcome by fear as she was the terrifying feeling of not being able to breathe, coupled by the realization that despite his powerful grasp, she felt no pain.

As quickly as the light fleeing a room after a candle was extinguished, her room became dark and her body became heavy, with her last thoughts wondering what terrible fate lay in store for her.

At the end of their struggle, Anna collapsed to the floor, laying there much like the broken snow globe that was scattered all around. Heavy breathing was the only sound in the room and her body was before him like a sacrifice, with the hand that had just quieted her dropped to his side carelessly. The blade-bladed dagger had played its role as he knelt next to her, his hand once more reaching out to her throat, though only to feel the beat of her pulse under his fingers. Silently, he lingered a moment, looking at her and listening to her breathe. Her face was serene, yet twisted by terror and after taking a moment to bask in the things he had done, the figure slowly rose back to his feet, exhaling slowly. His disgusted sigh deserted him as he took himself from the moment to look out of her window and to the moonlight beyond, with the harbor burning brightly in torchlight and beckoning him to his path.

From this point on, there was no turning back for anyone.

"The task begins."

* * *

  


 

Queen Elsa was storming through the halls of the castle, exhausted from her duties and tired of listening to some of her more long-winded advisors. Some of them treated her as if she were still a child, and that infuriated her more than anything. Only moments before, one of their comments had struck her wrong and she frosted the man's glass with nothing more than a glance, causing a disturbance in the room. She only partly felt bad about it and excused herself with a thin apology, though such occurrences had become more common with the young Queen, not because of any ill will but simply because her emotions sometimes escaped her. It happened most often when she was fatigued, but cooler heads usually prevailed and there had not been any real fallout, though her apologies were getting thinner and fewer, while her indifference grew. Her most trusted advisor and mentor, Regent Stenson, had followed her out and scolded her, as he always did, but even his words seemed like nothing more than a nuisance today. The endless drone of tradition and expectation was drowning against the exhilaration of watching her magic shape the world around her, and the queen that many wanted to see would often lose out to the person she wanted to be, at least in her heart.

Sometimes, she found herself wanting to be high atop the mountain again, released from her responsibilities and free to do as she wished, even if she could never really forget how lonely it had been.

Sighing, she had been thinking of Anna and was eager to go speak to her. To that end, she was intent on reaching her without being distracted and was happy that she saw no one along the way, not even a guard. The strangeness of that eluded her, but she was focused on other things. There was so much she wanted to do and so much that she could not do, even when her extraordinary magic should have granted an unprecedented level of freedom. The absurdity was frustrating beyond words. However, she felt at least she could try and smooth things out with her sister. That was something that required nothing but the will of her heart and was among the most important things to her.

Arriving at Anna's door, she reached up to knock, but hesitated, her knuckles inches from the wood. Immediately, she realized that even though she had been singularly intent upon going to her, she was not really prepared to talk to Anna. She did not know if she would back off her harsh stance and support her sister or continue to uphold tradition. She did not know if she would be the responsible queen, or the compassionate sister. There were so many questions in her head that she nearly let her hand drop to her side in defeat, but her resolve found strength in the fact that she nonetheless wanted someone to talk to, someone to share her troubles with, and she knocked loudly on the door, her face twisted with uncertainty.

"Anna? Can we talk?" she asked softly to the door.

There was silence. It was not the response she was hoping for and she visited the many days when their roles had been reversed, with Anna vainly trying to reach her instead. The memory made her shiver.

She found it too easy to slip back into the tragedies of the past.

Not wanting to relive them, Elsa knocked once more, a bit louder. She leaned in close, wondering if Anna was actually this mad and that maybe even the best of her intentions would fall helplessly against the authority of the wood. "Anna, please open the door. I understand if you're angry, but if we just talk about this, I'm sure we can figure it out," she said softly, placing her hand against the door and trying to feel some sort of response. "I still don’t know if I can allow you to propose to Kristoff, but it’s not because I don’t think you two should get married. I do want you to be happy. It's just there are so many things to consider, and we have to be careful about how we do things in front of others. We have…so many expectations on us. So many rules."

Strangely, she started wondering who she was talking about as she leaned against the door, her forehead touching the smooth finish.

"Can I come in?"

With more silence in the air, Elsa’s eyes fell down to the handle and she hesitated, hoping for some kind of acknowledgment, or any response at all. Anna's refusal to answer once more hinted at her stubbornness and she felt angry at that, but she knew if she let those feelings push back, they would only fight again. She was not sure her heart could take that. To stem her darker feelings, she pulled the handle down, happy it was unlocked, and pushed the door open to meet her sister.

To her surprise, a cold wind met her from the room and she found it empty and dim. The window was open to the lingering darkness outside and some of the furniture was turned on its side, showing signs of a struggle.

Anna was nowhere to be seen.

"Anna? Anna!" Elsa cried, rushing into the room. There was no sign of her and the disheveled condition of the room made her shiver with alarm. At once, she thought of calling for the guards but the open window snared her attention. She quickly moved to it, hoping that she might find answers. Outside, she found disturbed snow leading down from the roof and towards the harbor, with all torches and lights darkened along the way. The room was ice-cold, meaning time had passed since their flight, but a sideward glance to something else on the desk caught her attention. A thick scroll of paper was spread out on the desk, held open at its corners by pieces of broken glass and wood. Dark, red words were inscribed ominously to the parchment and Elsa flew to the desk, brushing aside a shattered snowman from the paper and raising the words into the moonlight.

  


_Snow Queen,_

_I have your sister._

_Come to the Weeping Valley._

_Come alone._

  


Elsa’s heartbeat was thundering in her ears and she read the note several times before turning back to the open window, her face twisted in fear. The moon was set low across the dark mountains and barely illuminated the dark room, where all of the candles and the fireplace were dark and cold. An equally dark mood settled over her and she held the paper against her chest, unsure what to do and overcome with worry for her sister's safety. Having her torn away when they were on the worst of terms made a new level of desperation flash through her eyes and her heart was forked between the angry desire to find the ones responsible for the crime and the chilling prospect of never being able to see her sister's smiling face again.

Elsa found her mind fragmented and torn. A proper queen would alert the guards and raise the alarm in the kingdom. A proper queen would raise an army of willing soldiers to set out into the night. A proper queen would set the gears in motion for a hundred other souls to come to her aid and bring back the stolen princess. Elsa suddenly did not feel like a proper queen, but rather a frantic sister, commanding the power of ancient magic and a raging heart, willing to set aside the proper things she should be doing and head into the darkness to find her.

At the mercy of the fire in her heart, Elsa suddenly felt like the infamous Snow Queen that would know how to properly punish the criminals responsible for putting their hands on Anna, and she quickly left the room to the cold darkness that had settled in through the open window.

 

 


	2. Pacing Through the Snow

**II**

Pacing Through the Snow

  


A gentle rocking dragged Anna from darkness. She opened her eyes to a room she did not recognize, littered with ropes and barrels, and musty with the smell of sweat and mead. It was not an environment she was accustomed to. Groaning, she sat up and reached up to feel her sore neck, but found her wrists bound together tightly with rope. It surprised her, but then the memories of the man in her room and the struggle that followed made her gasp, as if she wanted it only to be a bad dream. The cabin was dark, but she soon found a figure at the other end of the room, sitting cross-legged on a barrel and silent, like a lifeless gargoyle perched on the trusses of a cathedral. She recognized the mask instantly and she could not tell if his eyes were open, but judging by his response to her movements, she suspected he might be asleep. She did not know what this masked man had in store for her, but she did not want to stick around to find out.

Quietly, she wrenched around on the makeshift bed she had been lying on, which was nothing more than stacked boxes and folded canvas, her eyes staying on the figure for any signs of movement. She stood, though the floor beneath her nearly threw her back onto the bed, much to her surprise. She wrestled with a hanging rope silently.

“ _This must be a ship,”_ she thought.

Managing to finally stand, all she could think of was getting away from the masked monster. Her eyes found a door at the other end of the room, past her assailant and she swallowed heavily, imagining how treacherous her path was. Taking a deep breath and creeping slowly through the room, she found it hard to adjust to the movements of the ship, which rolled and yawed against the invisible sea, especially as she had to keep an eye on her quiet captor. A particularly violent lurch suddenly threw her against a table, disturbing a bottle which rolled off the end and nearly crashed to the floor had she not caught it with nimble fingers. A great breath slipped from her lips as she froze, looking to the man and finding that he was still silent.

“ _That was close.”_

Keeping the bottle as a makeshift club, she continued to creep towards the door, although it was now the creaky floorboards that groaned under her every step, trying to betray her. Anna grimaced and froze again, but the man did not move. She blew back some of her hair from her face.

“ _I'm glad this guy's a heavy sleeper.”_

Fighting the room, she continued, passing him slowly and pointing the bottle at his head with a fierce look in her eyes. Secretly, she wanted to club him for the soreness in her neck, but she was not sure such a monster would succumb to anything she could do, so she slowly kept moving, making broad steps like a dancer until she was then backing away, her lips still pouting and her shaky hands barely keeping the bottle in hand. Her entire, noisy trek did not bother him and she felt her heel strike the door, making her look back before giving him once last glance to make sure he was still quiet. Satisfied, she slowly turned, clawing her hand out for the handle.

"That would be unwise, Princess."

Anna shrieked in surprise at the sudden voice and juggled the bottle, barely grabbing it in a tight hug to keep it from shattering on the ground. She slammed her back against the door and her eyes darted to him. While he had not moved, it was obvious he had been awake the entire time, his eyes slowly following her on her dramatic journey across the room. Oddly, she felt embarrassed by that.

"Oh, you're awake?" she asked nervously, regaining her grasp on the bottle and wielding it like a club once more.

He did not react to her weapon. "Where might you be going, I wonder," he said, finally moving as he leaned forward on his barrel, his elbows propped on his knees. Anna laughed sheepishly, swinging the bottle around and wondering if she could get the door open and call for help before he managed to stop her.

"Oh, I thought I'd just step outside for some fresh air. Kinda stuffy in here, you know," she said as she was already getting ready to twist around and make her break.

The man sighed. "Listen carefully, Princess, and heed me well. You are helpless, with not a royal guard to be seen. You are on a ship, sailing through frigid waters many fathoms deep, several miles from shore, and crewed by men of questionable character, with only a wooden door between you. Your safety is assured solely by your willingness to do as I say," he explained.

“Do not open that door.”

Her chest seized by his tone, Anna suddenly heard the movements of others beyond the door. The voices she heard were loud and brash, cursing with profanity she could barely make out and sounding rough by their nature. Although they had not started well, she strangely felt like even though the masked man terrified her and had already proven to be villainous, the vulgarity in the noises beyond the door felt darker than the room and that any self-respecting princess would not want to open the door.

For the moment, she had to believe that he was the lesser of the two evils on that ship.

Giving up on her plan for the moment, she took a step away from the door and laughed tensely. "Oh. Well, stuffy isn't so bad, I guess," she remarked with a defeated shrug. He was quiet in response.

Having never been kidnapped before, she did not know what to do or how to feel, but the urgency of being taken further away from Arendelle with each passing moment made her step towards him, though the rolling of the ship turned it more into a lurch. Still holding her club, she canted her head to the side to try and get a look at the man under the mask. "So, is there any chance I can convince you to let me go, Mr. Kidnapper?" she asked politely.

No answer.

“No? Well, worth a shot," she remarked and looked around the cabin, trying to formulate a new plan before letting her eyes settle on him again. With his robes and mask, he did not even appear human, more like some kind of perilous monster, yet his calm voice and warning led her to believe there was more to him that some insidious plot to kidnap a princess. She tried to appeal to his humanity. "Can you at least cut the ropes? Like you said, I'm not going anywhere," she said, holding out her bound wrists.

No answer.

"Oh, come on. It's not like..." she began, but was interrupted when the door behind her was kicked open loudly, making her squeal and turn as she juggled the bottle once more. In the doorway was the captain from the harbor, minus one boot. Anna remembered his exchange with Elsa. The air that followed him was foul and his hand was resting on a rapier at his side. He was glaring into the cabin harshly and it made Anna step back, though his arrival did finally make her kidnapper slide down from the barrel and stand tall, facing him.

"What is it, Captain?" the masked man said.

The captain's eyes were locked on Anna and a mischievous smile had returned to his scarred lips. The smile made a shiver run down her spine. "Just checking on my passengers, making sure their every need is fulfilled," he replied smoothly. Anna could tell his thick accent was not the same as her kidnapper's, but his presence was strangely more chilling. His facial hair was unkempt and his wiry hair was tied back loosely under his wide-brimmed hat. When he smiled at her, he showed the yellowness of his teeth and the lewd glimmer in his eyes. His gesture made her take another step back.

"We require nothing. How long until landfall?" the man answered shortly.

"Mere hours away," the captain reported as his eyes shifted past the nervous princess and to the creature beyond. He began pacing slightly. "I'll admit, it puzzles me why you hired an entire ship just to transport this young lady such a short distance down the coast. A carriage would have been far cheaper, my friend."

The masked man’s posture was coiled within his robes. "That is not your business. You were paid. Leave us until we reach port," he answered pointedly.

Anna could feel the tension between them and ironically felt relieved that her kidnapper was not associated with this man or the foul air that hung around him. It was an strange thing to take sides between two devils, yet something about the captain told her that he was not there simply to chat. While she thought she should say something to try and defuse the tension, she felt compelled to remain silent between them.

"I'm afraid I cannot leave just yet, my friend. You see, the amount of money we were paid pales in comparison to what one might get...for the Princess of Arendelle," the captain suggested darkly, gesturing long, yellowed fingernails towards her. The gesture made her retreat back another step and begin to object when the masked man moved between her and the captain, his posture fierce and his hands hidden in his robes.

"Who she is…is none of your concern," he cautioned.

The captain was intimidated for a moment, but a few creaks of the floorboards behind him bolstered his courage. Six heavily armed men stood ready for his command outside the cabin, each of them tense and waiting for the signal. Normally, he would have simply walked in and taken what he wanted, but he also remembered how this mysterious man had freed his ship from the grip of the Snow Queen's magic, and that reason alone made him reluctant to proceed.

This masked demon was far more than he appeared to be.

In spite of the tension and the obvious threat, the captain suddenly appealed to Anna in a heavily shrouded tone, acting as if the entire standoff was merely a misunderstanding, "Princess, I don't know by what circumstances you came to be with this man, but I can promise you that if you would but ask, I'd escort you back to your kingdom, where I will gladly accept a small token of your appreciation. In the form of gold, perhaps?” Anna's heart leapt a moment, feeling the chance to have her hands unbound and return home. While all of her instincts had been telling her to beware the captain, the idea of going back to the safety of her castle made her consider the offer.

"You mean it? You'll take me home?" she asked, leaning out from behind the masked man.

The captain smiled. "Of course, Princess. You've my word as a gentleman," he replied, bowing gracefully with his hat pulled away in hand. His smile never left his face and his eyes never left the man.

Anna looked between them, wondering what to do. She had never considered that she would be given the opportunity to simply go back and end this nightmare, yet as her eyes moved from the seemingly courteous captain to the back of her kidnapper, she began to focus on the things about the man that confused her. While the aching in her neck warned her that he had did have something planned for her, he had not been otherwise vicious, speaking calmly and courteously. In contrast to the captain's overtures, his considerate behavior had felt genuine, even if his intentions seemed wicked. Being taken to some unknown place frightened her, as did he, but something in her mind was screaming to not trust the captain’s offer.

All of her heart told her not to trust him.

He reeked of treachery.

Anna took a deep breath after weighing her options, then smiled thinly at the parading captain as she stayed where she was. "I think I'll stick with him. Sorry," she said, pointing to her kidnapper. Between chivalrous treachery and villainous courtesy, she would have to go with the man who seemed to look at her as if she were a person and not a treasure to be stowed. Hearing her answer, the captain scowled and stood straight, replacing his hat. His hand settled back to his rapier. It would have been so much easier had she simply come to him, saving him from a scuffle that might cost him a few men and a good deal of cleaning in his finest cabin. He muttered to himself how foolish women were.

As his posture changed and he was beginning to speak, the masked man swiftly stepped closer to him, something that made the captain flinch and nearly draw his sword, though the memory of the man's actions in the harbor still burned brightly in his mind and he felt an overwhelming fear take a hold of him.

The man's voice came out from behind the mask, powerful and commanding, warning him of the consequences of trying to take the princess from him. "You have your answer. Take your men and go. Sail to port, allow us to depart and you may see this day end with only a lost boot."

For any other man, the captain would have taken the threat lightly and fed him to the sharks bit by bit, yet looking deeply into the holes of the mask, he swore that he saw the faintest orange glow set dangerously inside, warning him that should he take his position for granted for even a moment, the unbelievable force that freed his captured ship from the grasp of the Snow Queen's ice would be unabashedly turned against him, turning his entire ship to nothing in the dark waters of the sea.

Overwhelmed, the captain suddenly growled, swallowing his terror as his bare foot twitched, then turned angrily and stomped out of the cabin, slamming the door behind him. His angry voice roared in the hallway, but they could not make out what was said. The masked man's posture relaxed at his departure, but he continued to stare at the door until all of the other footsteps went out of earshot.

Anna blew a deep breath of relief out from her pursed lips. "Wow! That was really tense. I thought I was going to have a heart attack or something. What a jerk! I mean, that guy did _not_ seem like the gentleman he was pretending to be and believe me, I can spot that from a mile..." she exclaimed excitedly, reaching up with calm her heart, then realized her hands were still bound and her situation had not changed.

She stared at the ropes, dumbfounded by her continuing fate.

"Wait, I'm still being kidnapped, aren't I?"

"You were wise not to go with him. A princess is quite valuable in the Southern Seas, and not merely as ransom," the masked man said calmly, turning to her. The tension had released from his posture and he seemed to relax under his robes.

"Yeah, I kind of got that from his icky vibe. But how do I know you're not going to do the same thing?” she asked curiously, though he did not answer. She sort of expected that, though there was another thing that she wanted to know even more, “And...what would you have done if I decided to go with him?" The question hung in the air and she wondered if it was unwise to try and find out how wicked this demon really was, though he suddenly broke the tension and stepped past her to return his barrel, though he simply stood before it with his hand placed on top, speaking in a quiet voice that she could barely hear.

"Something terrible."

A shiver ran through her. While she could read the captain easily enough, she still had no idea what to think of him. She could not brush him off as a simple kidnapper, but she could not trust him either. His actions and his demeanor seemed like they were at odds, as if playing the monster did not come naturally to him, but she could not simply dismiss the fact that he had abducted her at knifepoint and bound her with vague threats and a frightening presence. It was a frustrating situation.

"Look, if I promise not to run or anything, can you at least cut these ropes?" she asked, holding out her wrists. At the very least, she felt like she had earned a little trust. He was quiet for a moment and her hopes grew.

"No."

She suddenly felt the back of her neck flare with heat and she scowled at him, feeling all of her efforts shatter. "And here I thought you might be a nice person!" she hissed, stomping over to the bed and sitting down with her back on him. She glared over her shoulder as harshly as she could. "I guess I was wrong. Not a nice bone in your body."

The man had already climbed back onto the barrel and seemed to ignore her, almost as if he had never moved. He did not seem interested in her tantrum.

"Rest, Princess. We make landfall soon."

“Oh yeah? And then what, Mr. Moody Kidnapper?”

“On to the Weeping Valley.”

* * *

  


Through the dark, snow-covered landscape, a single figure rushed over the snow. A long cowl and cape obscured them and there was barely a footprint left behind. The Queen of Arendelle had slipped out of her own kingdom, past the guards with nothing more than a note to Regent Stenson.

_Anna was taken. I'm going to bring her back. Take care of things._

Elsa knew that telling anyone about Anna would be a mistake and that the entire kingdom would volunteer to go find her. She also knew that with the kidnapper asking her to come alone, this was probably more about her than Anna, as her powers stirred up fear in others, just as it did within her. Her mind and heart were caught up in the torrent of worry that surged whenever she imagined her sister in the hands of this unknown villain, being subjected to unfathomable things and a victim of their every whim and desire. The thought of it kept her pace quick and focused on what she would do to this person when she finally met them.

In spite of the dreadful reason for her flight, a part of her also reveled in the chance to get away from the castle, with no one to follow her through the snow. Traveling in an unsure direction, with only an ancient map to guide her, she pulled her cowl tightly across her face and pressed on through the dark landscape, finding that the time around MidWinter was possibly the most hazardous to travel. The cowl was not to protect her from the elements, but to protect her from being recognized. In the endless fields of snow and ice of the kingdom, she was in her element, and there was something refreshing about it.

Stopping in a small clearing away from the main road, Elsa pulled her lantern close to look over her map, which was faded and torn. Arendelle stood as a large landmark in the middle, with the royal seal stamped next to the cartographer's name. There were dozens of lakes and rivers, along with other significant features. Near the right edge of the map, written in small lettering, was a strangely shaped depression in the landscape with a name barely legible next to it.

_The Weeping Valley._

The name made her shiver and she tried to get her bearings. Following a map through unknown terrain in the pale moonlight was not a standard skill for a queen, but she was confident she was going the right way, though her apprehension was not making it easy. For someone to sneak into Arendelle, subdue several guards and sneak out with a member of the royal family meant she was dealing a villain with significant skill, though that was not the most disturbing element of the crime. What truly worried her was that when she followed the tracks to the harbor, she found that they took Anna on the same ship she had frozen into the fjord and that the ice that she had created had not been broken, but melted.

She had not seen anything that could melt her ice in such a way.

"Anna, be safe," she said to herself, tucking the map back into her cape and continuing on, adjacent to the main road.

Judging as best as she could from the map and the landmarks, Elsa found herself walking through the high mountains in the general direction of the marker on the map. It was frustrating to move so slowly, but she could not afford to use a sled and risk being seen, not to mention that her powers allowed her to move through the snowy landscape much faster than any normal person. In a high-mountain valley, she came across a quiet mumbling sound, carried through the dark sky by the crisp, cold air. It stalled her and she lingered just beyond the sound, wondering what she might find that would rumble and grumble so. While she could not afford to waste any time, she had been planning on crossing the clearing, but as she peered out from behind a large tree, she found someone else there instead.

It was a man, walking back and forth through a long trench in the snow. There were supplies scattered around and a sled parked not far away. The man paced, talking as if there were an audience all around, though he was oblivious to her presence. If that were not strange enough, the man was very familiar to her, as if fate itself were putting him in her way.

"Kristoff?" she asked quietly, ducking behind a tree as she slipped her cowl back. It was the last person she wanted to see. Anna's plight would certainly hit him hard and she knew that though he deserved to go after her, but something deep inside kept her behind the tree and reading the words from the note in her mind.

_Come alone. Come alone._

Making this midnight trek through the wilderness to face some unknown foe was terrifying to Elsa, but she was strangely reluctant to involve the mountain man. There were any number of things that spurred her on alone, from her growing confidence in her powers to the anger that brewed within her heart, though it may have also been simply selfishness that made her feel this way, for she wanted to be the one to rescue Anna and somehow repay her for all she had done. As she lingered behind the tree, she let out a deep sigh at the crime she would commit against him. With her own desires tempering the pain in her heart, Elsa made the choice to leave Anna's beloved out of the situation and proceed on alone.

That was, however, before she turned to leave and found a reindeer in her face, bellowing happily at the sight of her. She jumped back, her heart in her throat. "Sven!" she chirped. The happy reindeer bounced about excitedly like a puppy finding its favorite toy and she tried to hush his noisy clamor, waving her hands down at him and feeling pressed to avoid drawing Kristoff's attention.

"Shhhh, shhhh. Please be quiet."

"Queen Elsa?" said a voice behind her and she froze instantly. Because of the noise, Kristoff had come over from his trench and was surprised to see her. She was easily the last person he had ever expected to find among the darkness and snow. "What are you doing all the way up here?"

Elsa turned around with a guilty look on her face and looking as if she were equally surprised at just coming across him. "Kristoff! Fancy meeting you here. I was just...well, on a walk. Yes, that's it. A walk," she replied, knitting her hands in front of her with a nervous laugh.

Kristoff scratched his head and looked past her shoulder, where he knew Arendelle lay far beyond. "That's some walk," he replied, then looked back to her with a suspicious look on his face. One did not often find the Queen strolling around the high mountains with no sign of an escort. "Where are your guards?"

Elsa laughed nervously again. "Oh, well, you know. Can't the queen go for a walk alone sometimes? I mean, I don't need guards _everywhere_ I go, do I?" she said, trying to brush him off. While he continued to look at her suspiciously, she looked around for some kind of way to change the subject, finding his deep trough through the clearing. "What are you doing all the way up here?" she asked, repeating his question in an effort to evade him, but also satisfy her own curiosity.

Now it was his turn to become evasive and his back stiffened. "Me? Oh, nothing. Well, nothing important. I mean, just looking for ice and all. I am your official Ice Master, after all. Yep, lots of grade-A ice around here," he said as he looked around, chuckling nervously. In the clearing, there was nothing but powdery snow and hibernating trees, with not a single sign of the kind of ice he was usually getting.

She quirked her brow at him.

"Okay, I wasn't looking for ice. I was just...thinking, that's all," he admitted, finding it difficult to try and lie to the Queen.

"Thinking," she repeated, noticing how deep and well-dug the trench was. She imagined he had been up here for days. "Is something wrong?"

"No. Yes. I mean...I don't know," he sighed, taking his hat off and pacing once more, right in front of her. It was obvious he was disturbed and that even his best pacing did little to solve the problem. Inwardly, he wondered if telling her about it might help. "I have this problem, see. It's about Anna. She wants to get married and all, but..."

"But?" Elsa repeated once more, this time with a stern look on her face.

Kristoff instantly picked up on that and panicked as he waved his hands at her. "No no, I mean, I want to get married too, but..." he said, trying not to suffer the wrath of Anna's sister, who happened to be the Queen and gifted in powerful magic. In the end, he sighed and wilted to the side, shrugging against his helplessness to resolve the issue by himself. "It's just I don't even know what I'm doing. I've spent days up here trying figure how to propose, _if_ I should propose and how I'd even make it work. I even went and got a ring, but..." he continued and pulled out a simple wooden box with a grand treasure inside, though his eyes fell when he looked at it and he sighed.

"She's a princess, and I'm just some guy who drags ice for a living."

It was that honesty that made her like Kristoff. Self-doubt was a song she knew well, so she could sympathize with him, even if she did not agree with his reasoning. Stepping forward, she placed her hand on his arm and smiled warmly, eager to help him dispel whatever fears were making him hesitate in following his heart. "That doesn't matter to Anna. She loves you for who you are. It doesn't matter if you're an ice master or a king. It's enough that you love each other."

"You really think so?" he asked, nervous at her touch.

"I do,” she assured him, “And besides, I've a feeling that the Queen approves of your intent to marry her sister, so try not worry so much."

Kristoff returned her smile, feeling as if a huge weight had been lifted from his shoulders. While he had never imagined going to the Queen with such an insignificant problem, he was glad he got to talk to her, and that she was the kind person that Anna had always said she was. "Thank you, your Majesty. That means a lot to me," he admitted and pushed the box back into his satchel.

She kept her smile for him, and his anxiety seemed to lessen.

Feeling the short silence that followed to be heavy, Kristoff suddenly shrugged as he tried to wade back into the mess he had made with his absence. In truth, being alone with Elsa made him nervous for any number of reasons. "So, with MidWinter coming up and all, is Anna mad at me for being gone?" he asked, wincing.

Elsa was brought back to reality and her smile faded. Anna was still missing and she still had a task ahead of her. "Oh, Anna is..." she began, then looked at the expectant look on his face. His obvious expectations of being yelled at upon his return made her guilt worse, and she repaid his honesty with lies.

"To be honest, she hasn't said much about it."

"Really?" he replied, looking surprised, "Because I expected her to be fuming. She really didn't say anything about it?" Now he seemed more disappointed than anything and Elsa felt overwhelming guilt at lying to him, like now she felt like she was sliding down an icy hill, unable to stop telling him the lies.

"Not a thing," she said with a frown.

"Oh," he said sadly, putting his cap back on his head. He tried to imagine how much trouble he was in, though he did not know which would be worse, her yelling or her silence. In either case, he suddenly felt afraid to go back to Arendelle, in spite of the fact that it was the one place he truly wanted to be. "Well, then I'd better get back before she does get mad. Can I give you a ride back, your Majesty?" he offered. As he began to turn back to his sled, Elsa's guilt flooded over her resolve and she ran her hands against each other, knowing she should follow the instructions in the note but also that she did not really want to do this alone. She also did not like the idea of sending him off on a bed of lies and deceit.

"Wait, Kristoff," she blurted and it caused him to pause and look back to her, "There's something I need to tell you about Anna." Carefully, she pulled the note from her cape and stared at it, feeling the weight it hand in her hand, then sighed as she presented it to him. Kristoff was disturbed by her expression and took the note, unrolling it and reading quickly. His eyes ignited and he looked up at her, the fury in his eyes mirroring the panic in hers.

"What does this mean? Someone took Anna? Who?" he demanded.

She shook her head. "I don't know. But I’m going to bring her back, Kristoff. You have my word," she said fiercely. Of that, she was certain.

Kristoff looked back to the note and pressed his lips together, then felt it crumple between his angry fingers. "You mean we'll bring her back," he replied as he suddenly stabbed the note back into her hand, then hurried towards his sled.

Elsa was shaken by his response and took a reluctant step forward, finding the situation flying further out of her control. "What? No! You've read the note. They want me to come alone," she argued.

He shook his head, continuing to throw supplies into his sled and inwardly berate himself for not being around when she was taken. "I'm not going to sit around while you go alone. When it comes to Anna, I don't listen to what _they_ want," he said, calling Sven over to get into the harness. He had already once went against his heart and retreated when he should have stayed close. He was not about to sit back and let someone else have her.

"Just…wait a minute…" Elsa tried once more, though she found her own heart happy that he was forcing the issue. As prepared as she had been to do this alone, she found that his insistence calmed her, though she was trying to maintain a brave face and royal posture. Elsa commanded the elements and could turn an entire kingdom to ice, yet she knew that with his courage, he was just as capable of seeing Anna home safely from the hands of whatever monster had taken her.

Truthfully, she knew that with Kristoff at her side, their chances of rescuing Anna doubled.

"Besides, you're already bringing Olaf," he noted as he cinched up Sven's harness.

Elsa blinked. "I am?" she asked in surprise.

"This is terrible! They've taken Anna to the Weeping Valley! What a tragedy! Anything but the Weeping Valley!" cried the snowman, who was sitting behind Elsa with the note in his twigs.

Elsa twirled around and gasped. "Olaf! When did...did you follow me?" she demanded.

"I couldn't let you go alone, Elsa," he replied.

As angry as she tried to appear, she could not fight the relief that swept over her and she glanced over to Kristoff, who was moving with purpose and focus. She could see the devotion in him and remembered that she was not the only one that loved Anna. She sighed and looked back to the smiling snowman, her own smile breaking her worried expression. "I’m starting to think Anna’s stubbornness is rubbing off on you two, but I guess there's no use in arguing about it," she said, turning back to Kristoff, who gave her a confident nod.

With the Queen’s false demands overruled, the four of them resolved to go save Anna.

"So, where is this Weeping Valley?" Olaf asked as he waddled towards the sled.

Elsa pulled out her old map, "I have a map, but I don't know if I'm reading it right. I think it's that way?"

"It's fine. I know where it is," Kristoff said, jumping up into the sled and leaving enough room for Elsa, "If we hurry, we'll be there in no time." Elsa nodded, more confident than ever, and slipped up into the sled, leaving her cowl down now to show her determined face. A party of hearts in love with Anna would easily fare better than one and she quietly once more wished for her sister to be safe long enough for them to find her.

Secretly, she was still brooding over what she would do to the villain that had taken her.

"Oh yes, the Weeping Valley. I bet it's a wonderful place," Olaf remarked as he vaulted up into the back of the sled and Kristoff spurred them forward through the snow.

 


End file.
